Chapter 31 I Have a Friend
When the topic turned to the red envelope in her arms, Aunt Wang's expression turned rather sour.
She doesn't have many hobbies, except for matchmaking. She has arranged many marriages in the past, some of which resulted in couples who hit it off and lived happily ever after, while others had a bland and respectful relationship. This is the first time she has encountered a couple that even she feels is a sin.
Seeing Wang Da Niang's embarrassed expression, the Yu siblings became even more curious.
"Auntie, what's wrong?"
Aunt Wang steeled herself and revealed the truth: "It was Zhou Changchun who asked me to persuade Fuling to reconcile."
"Zhou Fuling?" Yu Mingshu was surprised. Didn't the little girl run away a few days ago?
Aunt Wang lowered her voice and said, "You don't know yet, do you? Fuling ran away from home a while ago, saying she was going to Liangzhou. She was already at the city gate when Zhou Qi and his men caught her and brought her back! After she came back, that father and son wouldn't let her go out."
Yu Mingshu remained silent for a long time, a chill creeping into his heart.
Zhou Fuling's experience is enough to make one despair just by hearing about it.
Aunt Wang sighed deeply: "That girl hasn't eaten for almost two days. I'm afraid she's contemplating suicide."
Yu Dan said indignantly, "Auntie, you can't just earn money from anything."
Aunt Wang hurriedly defended herself: "I didn't speak up for that Master Liu! I was just advising her to give up her suicidal thoughts. They say it's better to live a miserable life than to die. Is it wrong for me to advise her to live?"
Yu Mingshu shifted his gaze to the Zhou family's residence in the distance. "You've already tried to persuade her. How is Fuling doing now? Is she eating?"
"She's still sickly and looks lifeless, though she managed to eat a few bites," Aunt Wang said helplessly. "With tigers and wolves in front of her, no one would be able to eat. This girl is so pitiful."
…
As summer approaches, the daytime weather gets hotter and hotter. The academy is crowded, and the indoor air doesn't circulate well, gradually making people feel dizzy and lightheaded. Students inevitably lose focus in class.
The teacher for the first class this afternoon is named Lin Qingxian, and he will be teaching the rules of modern poetry.
This Mr. Lin has an eccentric personality. He never looks at the students' feedback during class, but is immersed in his own rhythm. After finishing his prepared lesson, he turns around and leaves, never caring how much the students have absorbed.
Therefore, the students in the Wu Zi Hall liked his classes the most.
Yu Mingshu had no interest in poetics. She had memorized the rules of the four tones and eight faults of poetry in her previous life, and even after Lin Qingxian explained it to her again, she still couldn't grasp its charm.
She silently organized her notes on the Five Classics, filling two pages, but inexplicably lost her spirit. As she stopped writing, her thoughts drifted further and further away, and she didn't even notice when Mr. Lin left.
As soon as Yuan Yi entered the door, he saw a vast expanse of upside-down scallions.
"Wake up, everyone, get up and listen to the lesson."
Yuan Yi woke the students by knocking on Xie Ansheng's desk. He was awakened, but Xie Ansheng's expression was very unpleasant.
Xie Ansheng rolled his eyes at Yuan Yi and, in a fit of anger, threw the scroll in his hand at the pageboy. How could Yuan Yi not know that the anger was directed at him? He lingered on the front row for a moment, said nothing, and as usual, selected a passage for everyone to recite from memory.
After class, Xie Ansheng had already forgotten his brother's warning to behave himself and chatted with Zhang Jun and others about gossip.
When Xie Shichang was impeached, Xie Zhang took the blame and was flogged eighty times. Minister Xie himself only received the charge of failing to manage his subordinates properly and was fined half a year's salary.
Seeing that the Xie family still held considerable power, the students of the academy returned to Xie Ansheng's side. For every sentence he spoke, at least ten people would chime in with their own jokes.
The gossip reached the back row and could only be heard in a few scattered words, which seemed to be criticizing Yuan Yi's background.
Students who would curse their teachers at the slightest displeasure were not uncommon in later generations. Although Yu Mingshu had seen many of them, he still felt extremely disgusted and couldn't help but frown.
But she was also a little curious about Yuan Yi's background.
Yu Mingshu moved closer to Yu Dan and asked in a low voice, "Have you heard what Xie Wu and the others were talking about?"
Yuan Yi's background was hardly a secret; with Xie Wulang, that big mouth, spreading it around, it had long been common knowledge, and Yu Dan had naturally heard of it.
"I only heard it secondhand."
Yu Dan craned his neck to look outside the door, and seeing that no teacher was passing by, he continued with relief: "Years ago, Mr. Yuan's mother had an affair with a man without a matchmaker and became pregnant. The man's elders were ashamed of this and refused to marry her. Zhang was also an extremely proud woman who would rather die than become a concubine..."
“The Zhang family?” Even if Yu Mingshu was not familiar with the prominent families of Daliang, he knew that the Zhang family was a powerful clan second only to the Xie family.
Yu Dan said, "She is Mr. Yuan's mother, Vice Minister Zhang's sister, and Zhang Jun's aunt."
Yu Mingshu now only wants to know who this man is, that he dared to flirt with even Zhang's daughter, and then even showed his disdain afterward...
Yu Dan recalled this old story with great indignation: "Later, the two sides were deadlocked, forcing Zhang to give birth to the child at her parents' home. The man was a real coward. Fearing that he would ruin his family's reputation, he didn't even acknowledge his son! It's pitiful that Mr. Yuan was raised by the Zhang family and lived a life of dependence for more than ten years. I heard that even the younger generation of the Zhang family could point at him and call him a bastard."
Yu Mingshu always felt that something was wrong. With the Zhang family's power in Daliang, it would be considered extremely lucky for an ordinary person to marry a Zhang woman!
She believed it if the Zhang family refused to marry their daughter off and forced Zhang's daughter to sever ties with the family.
How could the man possibly want Zhang to be his concubine because she was pregnant out of wedlock? By humiliating Zhang, does the man have no intention of continuing in officialdom?
Yu Mingshu suddenly had another question: "Then why does Mr. Yuan have the surname Yuan and not Zhang?"
“Perhaps his father’s surname is Yuan,” Yu Dan said with a shrug.
"The man doesn't even acknowledge the child, yet he wants the child to take the father's surname?" Yu Mingshu found it hard to understand, while Yu Dan could only give her a helpless, bitter smile.
"How old is Mr. Yuan this year?"
Yu Dan was unsure and said, "It should be eighteen?"
"So young!" Yu Mingshu thought he was about to turn twenty, but he guessed he was two years older.
"In which year did he become a Jinshi (successful candidate in the highest imperial examination)?"
Yu Dan opened his mouth, about to answer "the seventeenth year of Fengle", but the words caught in his throat.
Yuan Yi seems... not yet to be considered a Jinshi (a successful candidate in the highest imperial examinations).
He looked to He Zheng for help, and He Zheng gestured with his chin.
Completely bewildered by their flirtatious behavior, Yu Mingshu, losing all patience, slapped Yu Dan on the back of the head: "What kind of riddles are you playing?"
He Zheng noticed Yu Dan's pleading look, cleared his throat, and drew Yu Mingshu's attention.
"Yuan Yi was a book lover. He was learned from a young age and mastered the Three Classics by the age of sixteen. He also studied ancient criminal law. Among the seven hundred people who participated in the provincial examination that year, he was the youngest, but he came out on top."
He Zheng recounted the past in a slow and unhurried manner, pausing for a long time at this point, his tone turning deep: "Unfortunately, when the list of candidates for the provincial examination was submitted to the palace, His Majesty crossed Yuan Yi's name off the list on the grounds of 'unclear background'."
“This is unfair; he can’t choose his birth.” Yu Mingshu said indignantly.
She suddenly understood Wu Qiuniang's worries; it turns out that denying someone's sixteen years of hard work only takes four words.
He Zheng sighed deeply: "If not forced to, which young scholar would be willing to teach at an academy?"
Before he could finish speaking, Yu Mingshu glared at him with a sharp look.
"What's wrong with teaching? The high-ranking officials in the halls of power are not necessarily more noble than a teacher."
Yu Mingshu picked up his cloth bag and turned to leave.
He Zheng was taken aback, and he and Yu Dan exchanged glances. "Did I say something wrong?"
Yu Dan also stood up, patted him on the shoulder, and said, "You've said that at an inopportune time. My older sister wants to be a teacher in the future."
He Zheng was surprised. He looked at Yu Dan, then at the gate, and suddenly realized what was happening. He threw the bundle to Jing Hong and hurried out.
In front of the academy's main gate, Yu Mingshu stood under a lush ancient tree, the warm sunlight filtering through the leaves and falling at her feet. Seeing this, He Zheng slowed his pace and gently approached her.
"I spoke hastily just now, and I had no intention of looking down on teachers. It's just that Mr. Yuan's ambitions clearly lie elsewhere, which is why I feel a little regretful."
Yu Mingshu lowered her head, her voice muffled: "I'm not angry at you, I just feel really frustrated."
"Don't feel bad," He Zheng advised.
Yu Mingshu was speechless. Just as he was about to say, "Do you even know how to comfort people?", he saw Yu Mingshu's expression turn serious as he said firmly, "This world has its own laws, and I cannot go against the will of Heaven. But if you are in trouble, I will definitely do my best to help you."
"Is He Erlang this loyal to everyone?"
"Of course not!"
He Zheng looked at her and said, "In my heart, the only people I can call friends are you and Yu Dan."
Yu Mingshu fell silent.
After a moment, she took a deep breath and mustered her courage to say, "Can I ask you something?"
He Zheng readily agreed, "Go ahead."
"I have a friend."
As soon as Yu Mingshu opened his mouth, he noticed that He Zheng's expression was a little off, so he quickly changed his words and said, "I have a neighbor named Zhou Fuling, who is a fourteen-year-old girl."
She carefully prepared her words and recounted the entire story of the Zhou family.
"You have a lot of experience and connections, do you have any ideas on how to help her?"
"I do have a solution," He Zheng said thoughtfully. "Are you sure this girl is trustworthy?"
"uncertain."
Yu Mingshu awkwardly touched the bridge of her nose, receiving a glare from He Zheng.
"True friendship is revealed in times of trouble, and I dare not say that I fully trust her."
He Zheng looked away and asked again, "How good is her medical skill?"
Yu Mingshu remained as candid as ever: "I really don't know."
He Zheng: ...
“I just wanted to ask if you had any ideas, not to force you to help her.” Yu Mingshu felt she should explain clearly, “She is pitiful, and I want to save her, but we are just neighbors and not close friends.”
He Zheng didn't ask any more questions. He looked up at the sky, turned around, and walked out.
Yu Mingshu called out to him, "Jinghong hasn't come out yet, where are you going?"
He Zheng did not answer and left in a hurry.
Jinghong and Yudan hurriedly came out, only to watch as a fast horse passed by the gate and headed towards the palace.
"Where is my Erlang going?" He asked, holding his master's little schoolbag, looking completely bewildered.
Yu Mingshu felt inexplicably guilty as he was stared at by at least two puzzled gazes.
"He really didn't tell me."
…
Two days later, a woman dressed in official robes and wearing a jade belt appeared in Yong'an Ward with several attendants. Wang Da Niang and Zhao Niangzi were chatting in the shade when they saw this scene and were stunned.
Aunt Wang tossed aside the melon seed shells in her hand and whispered in Zhao Niangzi's ear, "What a handsome young man! Who is he here to see this time?"
Zhao Niangzi rolled her eyes at her and said disdainfully, "You should get your eyes checked out. What young master? This is clearly a girl!"
Aunt Wang asked in surprise, "Can a young lady become an official?"
Zhao Niangzi said, "You have no experience. Look at the attendants behind her, they are all dressed as eunuchs. This lady, on the other hand, is obviously a female official from the inner court!"
Aunt Wang sighed, "I always knew that Yong'an Lane had a special feng shui. It's clearly a dilapidated alley, yet it always attracts important people."
The important person she was referring to was Yang Leyi, a lady-in-waiting in the Eastern Palace.
Yang Leyi stepped onto the dilapidated street, frowned slightly, looked around, and finally her gaze landed on two women whispering to each other.
"May I ask, ladies, how do I get to the Zhou family, the physician at Chunhuitang?"
The word "Madam" flattered Wang Da Niang. She hurriedly wiped her hands with her coarse cloth, stood up, nodded to the person who came, and hesitated for a long time, not knowing how to address her.
Madam Zhao, having seen far more grand occasions than she had, calmly rose to make way and replied neither servilely nor arrogantly, "Go down this street, and the house at the very end is the Zhou family's."
The elegant female official in front of him remained silent, gave her attendant a wink, and then strolled towards the Zhou family's residence.
The attendant took out a money pouch from his sleeve, tossed a string of copper coins to Zhao Niangzi, and then followed the lady-in-waiting.
Grandma Wang's eyes widened in astonishment. After a quick count, she discovered that there were ten copper coins strung on the red rope!
"If I had known those words were so valuable, I would have rushed to give her directions!"
"Everyone who sees this gets a share, so don't say I'm stealing your money." Zhao Niangzi generously handed her five copper coins, then winked and said, "Go over and hear what's going on!"
As the most well-informed informant in Yong'anfang, Aunt Wang certainly wouldn't refuse her old friend's invitation.
Under the clear blue sky, the two of them tiptoed after him and crouched down against the side wall of the Zhou family's house.
At the front gate of the Zhou family residence, a group of people from the inner court pounded on the fragile door, making a loud clanging sound.
The courtyard was originally deathly silent, but upon hearing this earth-shattering sound, Zhou Changchun coughed on the bed and called out to Fuling in a hoarse voice.
No one answered.
The Zhou family is now either dead or crippled. Of the two who are still alive, one is busy working at Chunhuitang, while the other is bound hand and foot and cannot move.
Now look what's happened; the door's been pounded on so badly that no one can get out to open it.
Aunt Wang knew the Zhou family's situation best. Seeing this, she immediately stepped forward and explained the reason to the group of people from the inner court.
After hearing the whole story, Yang Leyi frowned deeply and said in an unhappy tone, "The Crown Prince has issued an edict summoning Zhou Fuling, the daughter of the Zhou family, to an audience. We have come here on imperial orders, and we cannot return empty-handed. Which of you two is willing to make a trip to Chunhuitang and bring Zhou Qi back?"
Remembering that a single sentence was worth ten coins, Zhao Niangzi was clearly eager to try and was about to accept the job when Wang Da Niang suddenly stopped her and took out the Zhou family's key from the cloth bag hanging on her waist.
Under Yang Leyi's suspicious gaze, Aunt Wang smiled innocently: "I'm a neighbor in the back alley. I'm close to the Zhou family. Aqi and Fuling trust me, so they left a key with me in case of emergency."
Yang Leyi didn't ask any more questions. "Open the door."
Aunt Wang said, "The nobleman says it's an imperial decree from the Crown Prince. Could you please produce a token?"
This was the first time Yang Leyi's identity had been questioned. She laughed in anger, took off her waist badge, and shoved it in front of the woman's face. "I am Yang Leyi, the secretary of the Crown Prince's Palace. You'd better watch out!"
Aunt Wang stared at the sign for a long time before she felt relieved and opened the Zhou family's gate for the group.
Zhao Niangzi asked in a low voice, "What does that sign say?"
Aunt Wang shrugged: "How would I know?"
Yang Leyi stepped into the front courtyard of the Zhou family and sent a eunuch to the main house to negotiate with Zhou Changchun, while she herself went straight to Zhou Fuling in the west room with a gloomy face.
Two days ago, in the evening, He Zheng rushed into the East Palace and immediately closed the door to discuss matters with Crown Prince Liang Yuanjun.
After discussing for more than a quarter of an hour, He Erlang left happily, while the Crown Prince, with a worried expression, stared at the chessboard, lost in thought.
This afternoon, the Crown Prince suddenly issued an imperial decree, ordering her to go to Yong'an Ward to find a girl named Zhou Fuling. If the Zhou family tried to stop her, she was to show no mercy and forcibly take her away.
Yang Leyi couldn't understand what He Erlang had said to His Highness. How could her gentle, refined, knowledgeable, and reasonable Crown Prince suddenly go mad?
Upon seeing this young woman named Zhou Fuling with her own eyes, she fell silent, and she understood.
The girl, her body like a skeleton, sat on the ground, her hands bruised from being pressed down by iron chains. Her range of movement was limited to a single step; even the yellow guard dog had more freedom than her.
Yang Leyi was a little annoyed and turned to call Wang Da Niang in: "What kind of family wants to tie someone up like livestock? You have the key, so unlock this lock too!"
A look of pity flashed in Aunt Wang's eyes. Unable to bear looking any longer, she turned her face away and said helplessly, "Please calm down, sir. This lock... only Zhou Qi has the key."
From the main house on the north side came Zhou Changchun's shouts. He was loudly questioning who had broken into his home and why they had kidnapped his daughter.
Yang Leyi, suppressing her anger, paced around the room twice before suddenly stopping. She then ordered the accompanying eunuchs to lift the bed, remove the chains from the foot of the bed, and take the person and the chains back to the East Palace.
With so many talented and extraordinary people gathered in the palace, surely they couldn't pry open a broken lock?
Only when she saw Yang Leyi and Zhou Fuling board an incredibly luxurious carriage did Aunt Wang breathe a sigh of relief.
He picked up the heavy copper coin in his hand, and a few wrinkles appeared at the corners of his eyes with a smile.
"Robbers! This is robbery! Even a saint would not overlook the fact that parents forcibly took their daughter! I'm reporting this to the authorities!"
Inside the main room, Zhou Changchun struggled to get out of bed, rolled himself onto the floor, and lay helplessly on the threshold, panting and cursing.
Aunt Wang quickly put away the copper coins and went forward to call Zhao Niangzi to help carry Zhou Changchun back to bed.
A foul stench of rotting flesh emanated from the bedchamber. Zhao Niangzi frowned in disgust, put the person back on the bed, and immediately retreated ten steps away as if avoiding a plague.
"Old Zhou, your daughter is lucky to have caught the eye of the Crown Prince. Just now, a lady-in-waiting from the Crown Prince's palace came to fetch her to pay her respects!"
Ignoring the embarrassed blush on Zhou Changchun's face, Aunt Wang said cheerfully, "Don't blame me for taking the liberty of opening the door for her. That Secretary Yang has the Crown Prince's token and is acting on the Crown Prince's orders. If you keep her out, wouldn't that be disobeying the imperial decree?"
Zhou Changchun felt a lump in his throat and opened his mouth to say something, but suddenly his vision went black, and he vomited a large pool of blood amidst the woman's screams.
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